Jen W.
Yelp
This is a beautiful, peaceful, enormous cemetery located northeast of Parco Sempione, just past Chinatown. Your first view is a huge building (The Famedio) which runs the width of the cemetery and includes space inside for urns and memorials. This building does not look like your typical mausoleum with it's raised center structure and 'wings' going off in either direction. The top gallery both left and right are filled with crypts, statues and monuments. This is were some of Milan's most note worth citizens are entombed with honor. There are a number of placards detailing information on the deceased and the artists who designed their final resting place. Some of the niches, where ashes are stored along the walls, are covered by cobwebs and are quite old. It really is worth a look around.
If you go to your left, just past the entrance (after the guard office) is a smaller building that includes more niches and an information desk is behind the door on the right. Public restrooms are also located in this entrance area. Just look for the signs or ask at information.
If you walk directly through the main building (The Famedio), under the arched entrance to the grounds, you find a garden layout that begins with a semi-circular open area and boulevards running straight back with cross paths. On the outer edges, left and right, are raised areas that are more like a traditional graveyard. Even rows of headstones. The headstones here may be smaller, but they are still beautiful. In the center and toward the rear you will find huge family mausoleums and/or obelisk type monuments as well as individual burial sites. Some monuments are to a scale that one would expect in a cemetery while others are enormous monuments to families.
The headstone and monument styles range from classical to modern and are often based on when the monument was installed with a number of famous sculptors works. Many of the burial sites include photographs of the deceased and as well as beautiful sentiments. Some are quite sad and lovely. Trees are scattered throughout this center area making it a cool, shady spot on a sunny day. There are water fountains (those 'little widows' that dot the city) throughout the grounds with watering cans available for families to tend the flowers they leave. If you have a water bottle you can fill it here.
Bicycle parking is available just inside the gate, a trolley stop is located across the street to the left (walk to your right as you exit the cemetery) and a metro stop out front. The guards can be a little, 'cranky' shall we say, but they take their responsibility seriously and I can appreciate they have a very important task in keeping this 'sacred ground' while allowing the public to come in to admire the beauty. It really does feel 'holy' and sacred. Respect and quiet are requested in the cemetery making it not only a magnificent memorial to the departed, but also a peaceful respite from the city with foot steps on gravel, and bird song the loudest sound.
